Big Cypriot Bank Depositors Could Lose 40%: Cyprus Finance Minister

Cyprus' Finance Minister Michael Sarris said on Tuesday big depositors in Cypriot banks could lose about 40 percent of their deposits as part of a 10-billion euro ($13 billion) international rescue plan.

"It could be in that neighborhood but I do not want to anticipate it," Sarris told BBC radio, adding the exact figure was yet to be decided. "But what I have seen suggests a number in that neighborhood."

He said that capital controls to prevent big outflows of cash from the island would probably last for "a matter of weeks."

"I think we are talking a matter of weeks. That would be my sense," Sarris told BBC radio.

He said he was confident that outflows would be more controlled as progress was made on implementing an international bailout deal for Cyprus.

Banks in Cyprus will remain closed until Thursday, and even then subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits, after a European Union bailout that the country's president assured his people was in their best interests.

After returning from fraught negotiations in Brussels, President Nicos Anastasiades said late on Monday the 10-billion euro rescue plan agreed there in the early hours of the morning was "painful" but essential to avoid economic meltdown.

Cyprus' Finance Minister Michael Sarris said on Tuesday big depositors in Cypriot banks could lose about 40 percent of their deposits as part of a 10-billion euro ($13 billion) international rescue plan.